GRAVEL, ROCKS, PALMS AND TOPIARY, that’s what Las Vegas landscaping is made of. My wasband just got back from a visit there with these images in his pocket, taken in Paradise Palms, a neighborhood of mid-century houses by architects Palmer and Krisel, best known for their Palm Springs developments, that are pretty swell in their own right. (The houses, by the way, are real bargain by East and West Coast standards. One in fairly good condition might go for around $230,000. Others need a complete makeover.)
Something about these freewheeling front yards makes me want to laugh. Is it the anthropomorphic look of the pruned hedges, the casual strewing of boulders, the symmetrical line-up of mini-cacti in gray gravel? It’s so different from what we call a garden here in the East. Scroll down for a look at what can be done under pretty arid circumstances.
Photos: Jeff Greenberg
casaCARA: Old Houses for Fun & Profit 
The development is called Paradise Palms. Developer Irwin Molasky hired Palmer & Krisel, the same architects who designed many of the iconic mid-century Alexander houses that butt up to the hills of Palm Springs. There were apparently several models to chose from, which over the years have been tailored to the owners’ tastes by landscaping, paint and (in the veritable Vegas tradition) chotchkas. The homes surround the Stardust Golf Club–now the National Golf Club–a rat pack hang-out. The development is notorious for the ghosts of its former inhabitants: Johnny Carson, Dino, Debbie Reynolds and Dinah Shore. Marty Scorsese used one as Ace Rothstein’s home in “Casino”. Why the rusted iron saguero cacti in the front yard is beyond me.
Great, AC/JG, thanks for filling us in on the historical facts! The architecture certainly does resemble Palm Springs, but the landscaping, as you point out, has its own kitschy quality.
Liked the pics but would love to see more of the houses